Undamped relaxation oscillations due to self-gain-switching of laser dye mixtures

Undamped relaxation oscillations were observed from a short, simple dye laser using a laser dye mixture which was pumped at 337 nm using ns pulses. The dye solution contained Rh101 as first laser dye, together with DTDCI in double function as saturable absorber and second laser dye. Two trains of intense laser pulses were generated near 619 and 685 nm, with pulse durations of ca. 4 and 2 times the resonator transit time, respectively. This method of short-pulse generation is related to double mode-locking of dye lasers. Model calculations are used to describe the pulse generation by self-gain-switching, and to estimate radiative and nonradiative contributions towards saturation of the absorber dye.     

20 ps pulse generation by an excimer laser pumped double self-Q-switched distributed feedback dye laser

The behaviour of an excimer-laser-pumped distributed feedback dye laser (ELP DFDL) using a mixture of saturable absorber and laser dye as an active medium was studied. In a DFDL self-Q-switching occurs because of the population inversion dependence of the feedback. If the DFDL contains absorber saturation of the absorption by the leading edge of the created laser pulse also causes Q-switching. As a result of this double self-Q-switching, mixing a saturable absorber into the laser dye, the laser pulses become shorter and more stable. This was demonstrated experimentally. Mixing Rhodamine B into the dye solution of a Coumarin 153 ELP DFDL, a six-fold reduction in the pulse duration and a more than two-fold reduction in the pulse energy instability were observed. The experimental results were in good qualitative agreement with the predictions of a simple rate equation model.     

An alternate model of CW dye laser intracavity absorption

A new model is presented for intracavity absorption in a CW multimode dye laser based on the similarity between the laser and a self-quenched super- regenerative oscillator. The model suggest that the primary interaction mechanism between the atomic absorber and the laser is through a modification of the background radiation level from which the oscillation builds up. Numerical calculations are carried out leading to a prediction of the spectral line shape to be observed in intracavity absorption as well as the dependence of the signal on absorber density and pump power.     

Theory of passive mode-locking of CW dye lasers with contacted and non-contacted absorbers

A theoretical treatment of the influence of a saturable absorber in close contact with a highly reflecting mirror on a light pulse is given. The shaping of a Gaussian pulse during a single passage through such an absorber is calculated for various absorber lengths. The influence of absorber position and length on the pulse parameters and the stability of a continuously pumped dye laser are investigated. The shortest pulses and the most favourable operation conditions of the laser are to be expected in the case of a short contacted saturable absorber.     

Passive mode-locking of an Ar+-laser with rhodamine 6g as saturable absorber and double mode-locking of the pump- and dye laser system

The synchronization of the modes of the Ar⁺-pump laser by using a dye as saturable absorber is proposed. Besides, the passive mode-locking is extended to double mode-locking. In this case the dye simultaneously acts as a synchroneously pumped laser medium.     

Generation of pulses shorter than 70 fs with a synchronously-pumped CW dye laser

Pulses shorter than 70 fs are generated with a synchronously-pumped cw dye laser using a dye medium composed of a mixture of rhodamine 6G and a fast recovery saturable absorber, DQOCI. The laser pulses exhibit no satellites. A stable output of 30 mW is obtained for only 300 mW of pump power.     

Passive mode-locking of the flashlamp pumped coumarin 522 dye laser

Passive mode-locking of a flashlamp pumped coumarin 522 dye laser has been achieved, for the first time, using the saturable absorber 2-(p-dimethylaminostyryl)-benzothiazolylethyl iodide. Frequency tunable picosecond pulses as short as 4 ps have been produced over the spectral range 508–524 nm. Measurements on the relaxation time of the saturable absorber are also presented.     

Theory of passively mode-locked cw dye lasers

The circulation of an ultrashort light pulse in a continuously pumped modelocked dye laser with a linear cavity configuration containing the active dye, the saturable absorber and a bandwidth-limiting elements is treated. The steady-state condition that the pulse shape reproduces after each cavity round-trip leads to a nonlinear integro-differential equation for this pulse shape. An approximate method for the solution of this equation not limited to the case of low laser gain and small pulse energies is given. The stable single pulse region and characteristic pulse parameters, as energy, duration, intensity and asymmetry, are considered in dependence on the laser parameters.     

溴化亚铜激光泵浦的可调谐微微秒染料激光

本文首次报道了利用脉宽为25ns重复率为10kHz的溴化亚铜激光泵浦混有饱和吸收体DODCI的超短腔染料激光,产生出30ps光脉冲.在理论上对混入DODCI的超短腔染料激光脉冲压缩效应作了分析计算,计算结果与实验基本一致.在实验上又通过一个放大-色散系统实现对此染料激光脉冲的同步放大和调谐,并达到傅里叶变换极限.     

YAG激光同步泵浦染料激光器产生38fs光脉冲

研究表明,不用碰撞脉冲锁模技术,而由一台简单的线型腔染料激光器,就可成功地产生短达38飞秒的光脉冲。这种激光器用六镜折叠腔,其中有Rh6G和DOPCI两个喷流和一个棱镜对色散补偿器,用连续锁模Nd:YAG激光器的倍频输出同步泵浦。染料激光脉冲的平均功率为20mW,脉冲重复频率近100MHz。     

Dye lasers and intermolecular and intramolecular energy transfer processes

Computer calculations of ETDL performance indicate that dye laser output can be manipulated by an appropriate choice of a donor (absorber)-acceptor (dye) couple. Studies of relevant laser induced inter- and intramolecular energy transfer processes are presented. Presented in part at the European Physical Society Conference on “Physics and Chemistry of Laser-Induced Processes in Molecules”, Edinburgh (1978) [28].     

Intensity stabilization of dye laser radiation by saturated amplification

A novel scheme is proposed for stabilizing the intensity of a fluctuating laser source, using a partly saturated high gain traveling wave laser amplifier with a nonsaturable absorber distributed in the amplifying medium. Calculations for homogeneously broadened laser gain band in an adiabatic approximation are presented, which indicate that the stabilization factor can be increased by several orders of magnitude with the help of the absorber. An experiment is reported in which a two-stage dye laser amplifier with inserted attenuator, pumped by a nitrogen laser, is used to amplify and stabilize the intensity of an ultra-narrowband repetitively pulsed dye laser. The output intensity changes by less than a factor of four when the input is changed over three orders of magnitude. Work supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Contract No. N00014-67-A-0112-0071, and by a Grant from the Research Development Fund, Stanford University. On leave from the Laboratorio de Elettronica Quantistica del CNR di Milano, Milano, Italy.     

Q switching by saturable absorption in microdroplets: elastic scattering and laser emission

Laser-induced modification of cavity Q's has been achieved in a microdroplet containing a saturable absorber. The elastic-scattering spectra from such droplets for higher incident intensities show that cavity Q's are increased when the absorption is bleached. The lasing spectra from a droplet containing a saturable absorber and laser dye are modified when an intense bleaching field is injected into the droplet cavity after the pump field has initiated the lasing.     

Intracavity spectroscopy with modulated multimode lasers

The output of a cw multimode dye laser with an intracavity narrow-band absorber and its pump power modulated shows spectral condensation on both wings of the absorption line. This indicates phase locking of two groups of laser modes. The dispersion of the absorber modifies the mode spacing of the laser such that mode groups on both sides of the absorption line get into resonance with the modulation. These mode groups feel smaller loss and acquire the total laser power. Spectra of the laser output reveal the total absorption coefficient, the homogeneous broadening of the absorber, and the spectral width of individual laser modes.On leave from Lebedev Physical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, SU-117924 Moscow, USSR     

Generation of 49 fs pulses in a CPM laser pumped by a small-frame Ar+ laser

A colliding pulse mode-locked ring dye laser, pumped by an all-line small frame Ar⁺ laser has been used to generate stable pulses as short as 49 fs with pulse duration and stability similar to those obtained with the usual configuration where a single line of the pump is used. The effects of cavity alignment on the absorber saturation are presented and explained in terms of an analysis of stability of the ring cavity.     

同步泵浦飞秒激光锁模理论研究

考虑到饱和增益、饱和吸收、群速弥散和自相位调制等效应对光脉冲的作用,我们给出了一个适用于飞秒脉冲激光系统的锁模方程。并且用这个方程初步地研究了同步泵浦被动锁模的染料激光器。结果表明,染料光脉冲的输出特性将极大地取决于腔内色散、S参数、饱和吸收体的浓度、腔长失谐量等因素。     

Dye Laser for Absorption Trace Analysis of Sodium

The advent of organic dye lasers made possible many experiments in physics, chemistry and biology. Most of these applications are based on the possibility to tune dye laser emission almost at any wavelength between 3400 Å and 12000 Å.This quality combined with high light power made feasible multiphotone absorption, selective absorption and fluorescence experiments. Recently a group of authors published the papers: “Enhancement of absorption spectra by dye laser quenching I and II”^1,2 which start a new field of applications of dye lasers. Namely if a weak absorber is placed inside the broad band laser cavity the absorption is enhanced and this results in the same absorption bands or lines observable in the spectrally resolved laser output. This effect can be used for detection of the traces of elements as a complementary method to the classical absorption spectroscopy but with much higher sensitivity. Same method could be also very useful for detection of transient species with a very short lifetimes.     

On the possibility of mode-locking a dye laser by a fast saturable absorber

The problem of mode-locking a fully relaxing saturable (dye) laser medium by an instantaneously saturating (fast) absorber is theoretically considered when group velocity dispersion and Kerr-type nonlinearity are present. Off-resonant chirped solutions are found whose minimum duration is determined by the relative losses (saturable and nonsaturable) and by the saturation depth of the absorber. The addition of nonlinear elements can only broaden the stability range of the solution with respect to the group velocity dispersion.     

The effect of hard mode locking in a dye laser

The influence of the relaxation time of a saturable absorber on the dynamics of a quasi-continuous ring laser is investigated. It is shown that in a dye laser with a fast absorber, bistability arises; thus two multimode regimes coexist. The regime of shallow stochastic modulation is established spontaneously. Transition to the mode-locking regime accompanied by a sharp increase in the number of generated modes is feasible only under the action of an initiating pulse (hard mode locking). The analytical criterion for hard locking has been obtained. If the criterion is not satisfied, the only stable regime of a laser is mode locking. In this case the transient process is the longer the smaller the relaxation time of a saturable absorber.     

The effect of saturable absorber lifetime in picosecond pulse generation. II. The cresyl-violet laser

Picosecond pulse generation in a pulsed cresyl-violet laser, mode-locked by four saturable absorbers (DTDCI, DDCI, DCI, and DCI'), of different relaxation times, has been directly studied. In contrast to the ruby laser case, the ultimate pulse duration is largely independent of the absorber lifetime. Pulses of ? 4 psec duration are obtained from a cw Rhodamine B dye laser mode-locked with cresyl-violet.